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Episode 815 - 2 Chefs Compete
The fifteenth episode of Season 8 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on December 15, 2010. On that episode, Nona and Russell competed in the final tasting challenge, picked their brigades for the final service, and one of them was declared the winner of Hell's Kitchen. Intro The episode began with a recap of the first fourteen episodes, mentioning what happened, and who got eliminated when. Back to the dorms, Nona was very happy to be a finalist, while Russell said that he felt like a million dollars. After celebrating with champagne, they got to work on creating their menus, and worked until 2:31 am. The next day, both of them met their Sous Chefs to go over their menu items. Russell said that his menu was elegant, contemporary, and simple, while Nona’s menu was all southern based. At 4:04 pm, Sous Chef Scott asked Nona and Russell to get changed as Ramsay was waiting for them outside. After changing, they rode in the SUV, as Russell knew that the show's notoriety was throwing curve balls at them, and they had no idea where they were going. Later, they arrived at an airfield where Ramsay was waiting for them, and the latter explained that because one of them would live in Los Angeles after Hell’s Kitchen, he wanted to give them a helicopter tour of the city. After seeing some of Los Angeles' famous landmarks, they arrived near the J.W Marriot where Ramsay showed them a crowd of people waiting for them, and revealed their final challenge. After landing on the helipad, James gave Nona and Russell parachutes, and Ramsay told them that they had to jump, and the parachutes would automatically open. While Russell refused to do it, Nona was willing to. However, Ramsay revealed that he was joking, and they all walked down to the stage. Final challenge For the Final Tasting Challenge, Nona and Russell had one hour to cook five dishes that would be judged by some people from the Los Angeles culinary community. The dishes included soup, salad, pasta, fish, and meat entrée. Nona worked on her fine dining southern food, while Russell wanted to use ingredients that were California based. Eventually, both of them got their dishes cooked and plated in time. The soup round was judged by Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG. Nona presented her loaded potato soup with bacon, cheddar, and chives, and Russell presented his roasted cauliflower soup with crab salad and curry powder. After tasting both soups, Leiweke gave Nona the point, giving her the lead 1-0, which made her happy that she got off to a strong start. The salad round was judged by Executive Chef of the Patina Group, Joachim Spilichal. Nona presented her beet salad with frichese and grapefruit champagne vinaigrette, and Russell served his burette and prosciutto salad with white balsamic. After much deliberation, Spilichal gave Russell the point, tying the score at 1. The pasta round was judged by Executive Chef and Owner of Sona, David Myers. Nona presented her pan-seared chicken breast over orecchiette, and Russell made a garganelli with sea scallops. Myers eventually gave Nona the point, and she took the lead 2-1. The fish entrée round was judged by Executive Chef of the Water Crest, David Lefevre. Russell presented his pan-seared arctic char, and Nona presented her pan-seared salmon with tossed vegetables. Lefevre gave Russell the point, tying the score at 2. Finally, the meat entrée round was judged by Kerry Simon from the LA Market. Nona served her pan-seared ribeye with cauliflower purée and wild mushrooms, and Russell presented his grilled veal tender with roasted peppers and grilled onions. After tasting both dishes, Simon gave Russell the point, and he won the challenge 3-2. After, Ramsay revealed that there was a surprise waiting for them back in Hell’s Kitchen. Team select When the finalists came back to the dorms, Nona noticed that the lights were off. When they opened them, Gail, Trev, Sabrina, Melissa, Rob, Boris, Vinny, and Jillian were there to surprise them. While Nona was happy to see them, she immediately thought about who to pick for her brigade, knowing that while she wanted Jillian and Gail, she did not want Rob, and especially not Sabrina due to their problems in the past. While Russell did not know who to pick, he knew that Boris could not cook at all. Then, the phone rang, and after Trev picked it up, Ramsay told him and everybody to come downstairs. As everybody went downstairs, Ramsay reminded the returning chefs that they were back to help Russell and Nona during the final service. Because Russell won the final challenge, he was rewarded with the first pick, so he picked Jillian as she was the strongest of the returning chefs, and Jillian knew that she would have done the same if she was in his shoes. Then, Nona picked Gail, which excited the latter as she was ready to kick Russell’s ass. For his next pick, while Russell wanted to pick Vinny, he felt that he looked tired and defeated, and asked if he was confident. However, Vinny secretly blamed Russell for getting him eliminated earlier than he wanted, and did not want to be on his team. Unfortunately for Vinny, Russell picked him, and he was not happy that he had to help Russell win, and called him a piece of shit. For her second pick, Nona picked Melissa. Then, Russell chose Sabrina as his third pick, which excited her as she was not picked last, and Nona picked Trev as her third choice, with him saying that he was ready to knock Russell onto the floor. That left Boris and Rob as the last possible choices. Russell picked Rob as his final person, which meant Boris was Nona’s final brigade member. After, Ramsay asked the finalists how they felt about their team, which both of them answered they were confident, before being dismissed. Before service The next day, Nona and Russell brought their teams to the kitchens, and began prepping for the final service. Nona knew that she had to be perfect, but her main concern was Boris as she felt he was mentally slow, and she decided to help him. In the blue kitchen, everybody was moving at a good pace, but Vinny continued to show poor attitude to Russell as the latter urged him to get fired up, but dismissively knew that Vinny was jealous of him. Vinny told Russell that what he did to get him eliminated was dirty, but Russell told him to either get over it or leave. Despite that, Russell convinced Vinny to stay, but Vinny was hoping for that day to end as he could not stand Russell. Before service began, Ramsay pulled Nona and Russell aside, and gave them their head chef jackets. After changing, they came back to their kitchens, as Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service Kerry Simon, Francesca Schuler, and the finalists' loved ones were in attendance. Nona’s menu featured a baby beet salad, pan seared halibut, and ribeye with red wine, while Russell’s featured scallops with cauliflower, goat cheese ravioli, and pan seared filet mignon. Both got their first tickets, and called their orders to their brigades. Despite considering Russell a douchebag, Vinny said that he was not going to sabotage him, and asked Jillian to send his scallops. However, they were not warm, and when Vinny tried to convince that he just got them out of the convection oven, Ramsay warned him not to argue. Despite that, Vinny’s refire was accepted, and Russell pushed out appetizers. In the red kitchen, Trev’s beet salad was rejected for being overdressed, and Nona wanted to get her team motivated as they were on their first ticket. Fortunately, Trev started over, it was accepted, and both kitchens managed to push their appetizers, with Ramsay informing them that Russell got 27 tables out while Nona got 28, and urged them to pick it up. Moving on to entrées, Ramsay noticed a filet that Sabrina cooked had unneeded stock, and Russell reminded her that the meat was supposed to be dry rubbed and not boiled. Then, Sabrina sent a raw steak to the pass, and Russell decided to switch Vinny and Sabrina to different stations to make sure a mistake like that would not happen again, which Ramsay considered a clever move. It paid off as Vinny sent a respectable filet dish to the pass. In the red kitchen, Boris sent his halibut, but it was raw, and Nona reminded him that it had to be in the oven for five minutes. Boris’ second attempt was raw again, which led Nona to remind him about the cooking time again, and Trev to warn Boris that if it would happen again, he would come over to help. One hour into service, Boris’ mistakes on the halibut has slowed the flow of food as the red diners were getting impatient, while the blue kitchen continued to push out entrées. Boris’ third attempt was raw again, and Trev finally came to help Boris, knowing that they were doomed if he would not. However, Boris did not appreciate, which led to an argument, but Nona calmed the situation down by telling both of them to shut the fuck up. Boris’ fourth attempt was finally accepted. In the blue kitchen, Russell decided to fire two tables at once in order to keep his lead over Nona, but one of the dishes was sent back for being raw, and Ramsay reminded Russell to do one ticket at a time. In the red kitchen, Nona announced that their next ticket was for her family, and asked Melissa to make sure it was perfect. However, Melissa sent a raw steak, and while she was disappointed that she has been making rookie mistakes during her time at Hell’s Kitchen, she knew she was better than that, and wanted to prove it. Two and a half hours into service, Nona was still waiting on Melissa’s refire. In the blue kitchen, Russell was focused on the finish line, and pushed Rob for the ravioli. However, Rob announced that he was out of tomato water, which pissed Russell as he was never warned about that. Then, a frustrated Russell ordered Jillian to help Rob, and warned him that he was pissing off the wrong person. However, when Rob talked back to Russell, it infuriated the latter, and the two of them almost had a physical confrontation, much to Ramsay’s dismay. In the red kitchen, Melissa’s refire was accepted, and both teams served all their remaining tables. Nona was impressed that her entire kitchen was able to gel quickly, and while Russell felt that he ran a marathon, he was proud of his performance, and believed that his consistency during the competition would help him win. Post-mortem After saying goodbye to their brigades, Nona and Russell went back to the dorms, with Russell knowing that his anxiety level was through the roof, and that he would be disappointed if he would finish second. Nona was teetering between nausea and hysteria, and hoped that she did well enough. Back in his office, Ramsay looked over the comment cards from the diners, along with his own observations, to determine who the winner would be. Winner announced Ramsay called Nona and Russell, and both of them came to his office while knowing that their entire future hanged in the final results. Ramsay explained that after looking over the comment cards, both dining rooms enjoyed their menus, and the final score was very close. While Ramsay admitted that he wished he could give both of them the promised position, he could not, and asked them stand in front of a door each. After Ramsay’s countdown, both of them turned their handles, but only Nona’s door opened. Nona was named the winner of Hell’s Kitchen, and won the Head Chef’s position at LA Market, along with the spokesperson role at Rosemount Winery, therefore making Russell the runner-up. Unlike all the runner-ups before and after him, Russell did not take his loss gracefully, and blamed his team for costing him the win, even threatening to blacklist all of them from any restaurant he would work at. Meanwhile, Nona was extremely happy to have won, and knew that all her fight back paid off despite missing both her son’s first birthday and first steps. Later, Nona and the rest of the chefs celebrated, while Russell bitterly drank his champagne. Ramsay's comment: "When Hell's Kitchen first started, I used to say, "No, no, no" to Nona. After every service, she improved dramatically, and I was soon saying "Yes, yes, yes". She has a phenomenal palate and a real passion for cooking. Soon, all of America will be saying "yes" with me when they see her excel as the head chef of LA Market." During the credits, some never before seen footage was shown, including Antonia being dragged out of Hell’s Kitchen while complaining about her migraine, Curtis asking for more champagne, Raj doing karate moves, Melissa and Nona struggling to get the former’s boot off, Sabrina doing a kick, Rob sleeping, Trev choking on something, Vinny explaining to Ramsay how his hair was immaculate every morning, something dropping behind Jillian spooking her, Nona tripping over something and almost falling down, and Sabrina confirming to Ramsay that parts of her hair was real and inviting him to come and touch it. Category:Season 8 Category:Episodes